Almost all aircraft have emergency lighting systems. For example, passenger aircraft have a number of emergency lights, such as emergency exit signs, light strips on the floor, emergency slide lights, etc. These emergency lights are part of an emergency lighting system.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional emergency lighting system 900 in a schematic form. The emergency lighting system 900 has 3 emergency power supplies 950, coupled between a power supply line 904 and ground 906. The emergency power supplies 950 are further coupled to a trigger line 960, through which an emergency signal can be transmitted. This emergency signal triggers emergency operation of the emergency power supplies 950. Upon receiving this trigger signal, each of the emergency power supplies 950 supplies power to various emergency lights 902, which light up. For redundancy reasons, some of the emergency lights 902 are provided with power from more than one emergency power supply 950.
In modern air planes, the wiring efforts for such emergency lighting systems have become unacceptable. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide an emergency light unit that allows for the wiring of the emergency lighting system to be reduced. Further, it would be beneficial to provide an emergency lighting system with reduced wiring.